I awoke back at my hut. The sun hadn't quite set. I felt antsy laying here and had to get up to relieve the tingling. When I stood the world slightly wobbled, but my body moved on its own. I found new clothes in a basket and dressed. I also grabbed fruit from the basket and I found the book Scott gave me.

Walking out, silence hung in the alleyways between the huts. I didn't see anyone else. My steps didn't wait for my brain to choose which way and I found myself walking towards the mountain. The way seemed shorter than I remembered. The grass and flower bushes, bright and bursting with scents, beckoned me to touch them. My skin needed the pulse of life. I laid on the grass with my back on a tree stump touching and caressing the strands. I opened the book and began reading while my other hand played with the grass.

"What are you doing?"

I gasped in fright.

Nita. She stood looking intimidating as all hell a few feet from me shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

"You should be in your bed." Her English sounded crisp, clear, and authoritative which only made me madder.

How dare she? I tucked my wild hairs behind my ears. I snapped my book closed and stood up.

"I asked you two questions."

I should be scared or something, but instead, my anger stewed. Nita ruined my quiet time. It took so long to relax. I clenched my jaw but didn't say anything. Instead, I walked away.

"You can't go into the forest."

Watch me.

A hand grabbed my arm to yank me to a stop, but I slipped from it. I ran. My lungs felt happy for the push. I took in big gulps of air and pushed my new legs until I didn't hear anyone behind me. My mind took in the dark dense purple and blue trees. The sounds of the night grew louder as the shadows stretched longer. I found a nice tree with a view of the surrounding area. I climbed it easily even with the book tucked under my chin. The limb I settled into had a wide flat place to sit and I smiled. This would do.

I munched on Obsi when the first rustles of the night occurred. A small animal scurried past. It looked like a mouse, but it jumped like a kangaroo. I leaned forward trying to take in its super adorableness. The quiet made the evening give off odd and spooky vibes. Fog drifted in cooling my skin. About halfway through the book learning about werewolf biology basics, I noticed a large shadow walk towards my tree and look up as if it knew my location. I cocked my head to the side.

Another shadow appeared this one smaller. And another. And another. They stayed too far for me to identify. Each disappeared melting back into the shadows. Somewhere deeper several animals crashed into each other, but I felt safe, so I kept reading until eventually, I fell asleep.

I had a weird dream. I watched as three boys I didn't recognize sneak into a large oversized building. They kept looking towards the main courtyard where distracted villagers ate. The three boys stayed quiet as they snuck in. One of the boys bumped his head causing him to stumble into a bookshelf. It crashed. They all looked wide-eyed towards the mealtime yard. One of the boys, the leader scolded the other.

They continued on looking for their "prize." After too many breaths, one growled. The other two stilled and looked to him. His eyes furrowed in a book, his attention tranced by the words. "This is it." He stuffed it into his satchel. "Tear up the rest of the room, so they can't tell what happened."

They nodded and pulled things out trying to keep attention away from them. One of the boys left the other two to their duty.

The one outside tore through the herb garden stealing the needed plants. "This next moon rise," he uttered snatching another herb out of the ground like a weed, "We will finally bring back the honor stolen from the family. We will no longer be waved aside. 18 hours and everyone else will look to the" The word muffled. "-family for leadership!"

I awoke back in my hut. Someone placed me on the bed on everything. I groaned. I didn't want to be up. My whole body ached. The ants of anxiousness started to gnaw on me. I brushed my hair with my fingers finding some twigs and leaves. My book was under my back. I stretched, but it wasn't enough. I needed to run. Grabbed some fruit and my book, I left everything else. But when exiting my room, I ran directly into Scott.

"Sunshine, we need to talk."

I shrugged and kept walking.

"Last night, A report came in of a human in the forest. Being you are the only human here, I can only guess what the hell you were doing, but you can't do that. You could get killed. Beasts roam the forest. We can't protect you if you go off by yourself."

I pointed at the book specifically 'Werewolf.'

"Well, we don't know exactly what gifts the Goddess gave you. You may be a different shifter. With your love of climbing, maybe a cat."

My body needed to stretch; I picked up my pace. Scott followed.

"I'm trying to discuss something important with you." He said. We stood at the edge of the city. A large field of swaying grass greeted me. I touched the fronds. "If you are a shifter and not just a human who is sensitive to wolfsbane, we have to get you ready for shifting. You'll shift probably at the next new moon during the 1st new moon after your baptism."

I lifted the book.

"Yes, the info is in there, but there are things you learn when it happens. Sorry, I'm not normally the person who explains all this."

I dragged my hand through the strands walking deeper.

"This is Uwe's grain field. They may be offended and wonder what you are doing to their grain."

Past the grain, I found another game trail. It lead around to a hilly portion of the land. I smiled and took off running to the top. Scott startled at first, but then bolted behind me. I wanted to laugh, but no sound came. Was this the downside of the gifts? Would I never laugh again? Sounded more like a curse. I stopped, peering over the lands. Scott put a hand on my shoulder.

"Saying it's a lot, seems like a pitiful statement with everything. I wish you could tell me what's running through your head. I'm sorry about everything."

What ran through my head didn't make sense right now. I thought about the wondrous creature with the antlers I met in the training. Did it live here in the forest? I pondered whether yeti creatures lived deep in the forest and if these people released the creatures on the humans. I thought about my family I'll never see. Friends that were probably all dead and here I stood on top of a hill with blue fucking legs. Nothing made sense. Plus, I had an urge something felt wrong. I didn't belong. My trust began to wither the longer I stayed. I wanted to run. Part of me wanted to scream and cry. Another part wanted to read as much as I could because maybe the more I learned the more I will be able to help others and I wanted to get back to the human world. There had to be more survivors. There had to be others.

"Sunshine?" Scott moved blocking my view. It forced me to look at his kind eyes. "How many of those have you eaten?"

I mindlessly chewed a fruit from my room. I shrugged putting up 5-6 fingers.

His eyes widened. "That's like eating bushels of potatoes."

I needed to bulk up. I turned to the transform chapter. My stomach grumbled as if to punctuate my point. I popped another in my mouth.


"Just give it time between bites. Our food has more calories than food from Earth."


I gestured to him and then to the transform chapter.

He shook his head. "Not without the Alphas' permission. We only do it for the hunts, but I'll ask. Which reminds me, we should be having a hunt soon and I think you will really love it. We don't kill the animal or anything. It's more like a big game of tag."

I frowned. How about... I went through the chapters until Pandora's. I tapped on the drawing of the girl and to my eye.

"Did you see her?" Scott asked excitement in his voice. "Only a few have been baptized in Pandora's Lake. Most of us are baptized in Lake Serenity which is..." He nodded away from the sun. "Over there about 3-4 miles hike. We used to play in the lake all the time as kids."


I nodded, tapped on the drawing again, and pretended to scream. But Scott looked at me eyebrows all scrunched together.

"I'm sorry I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Dr. Frost said she'll bring you something to write on, but only me and her speak English... oh Nita and Yoki know some too. They learned because they are our backups if anything happened."

I put up a finger and pointed to words. 'Where' and 'Healer.'

"I can take you. You passed out, and we didn't get a chance to go over all the different results."

I nodded taking off running down the hill back towards the city. Scott chuckled behind me. My legs stretched as I ran as hard as I could until I ran out of the hill.

"You're fast!" Scott laughed. He put an arm out. I hooked mine in his, and we walked the rest of the way into town and to the healing huts. The villagers were still not milling about which seemed weird to me. What's keeping them in their huts?

"Oh! I'm so glad you brought her." Her voice yelled down from the loft. "I'll come down."

"I've been doing a lot of research since the last time you were here and I didn't find anything on humans being baptized. We don't know if you were blessed with being a shifter or if you are just sensitive to wolfsbane. Until we understand more, let's keep this information quiet to keep you safe."

"Dr. Frost." Nita's voice came from outside the doorway.

"You may enter Nita."

"You are being summoned."

"I am finishing up here and will head right over. Thank you." Dr. Frost squeezed my hand. "Finish up reading that book. It will answer most of your questions. Oh. I also have another book for you." She walked over to one of the walls of books. She grabbed one from a lower shelf. "This is a sign language some wolves use. It might help you communicate. Scott called you Sunshine. That gave me an idea. Would it be okay if we put Sunny just as a temporary name? I have you listed as Patient 44 which doesn't fit you."

I nodded with a smile. Sunny sounded nice. Not my name, but maybe it could be a new start. People didn't know me here. I could be anything, even this Sunny. Lana was a scared little girl. Sunny is strong and a fighter. She is a Survivor. Yea. Sunny works.

"The sign for Sun is a fist and then spread all fingers out wide like a blast of sunshine." Dr. Frost put up her hand and flashed all five fingers before going back to a fist. "You can customize it of course."

I nodded to say thank you. She smiled at me and patted my shoulder.

"I need to go. But come if you need anything." She left me and Scott.

"I like Sunny."

I placed a hand to my chest; then, put up two fingers.

"Good. We'll keep Sunshine as our thing then."

I nodded.

Suddenly a sharp sensation raced through my spine. I tried to gasp but my lungs didn't work. I crumpled. Scott's arms tried to keep me standing, but I pushed him off me. I crumpled to a crouch finally coughing. Another burst of hurt spidered from my spine and down my limbs. I looked up at Scott; his eyes furrowed. I stripped off my tunic; the touch of the clothes felt like fire.

The pain stopped. I held my clothes to my front as I touched my back and showed it to Scott.

"You have nodules over your spine. They are 2-3 cm and hard. Um. We haven't had any humans go through the change so maybe this is how your body is getting ready for yours? Werewolves are born and therefore don't need to do this. We are already capable of the change. Dr. Frost and I didn't consider this, but I'll speak with her as soon as she gets back."

I wiped my cheeks. I shifted my body. It cracked and I sighed happy for the relief. Exhaustion washed over me and I gestured to a bed. Scott nodded. Using my tunic as a pillow, I laid on my stomach. I wished I fell asleep immediately, but I couldn't. I kept my eyes shut and breathed in trying to make up for my missing breaths. Scott paced.

"Is Sunny, ok?" Dr. Frost said.

"Yes. For now. She had an episode after you left. Come look."

Two pairs of footsteps approached and someone's fingers moved on my skin which flinched on its own.

"This is- well come here." Dr. Frost said. Their steps got quieter until they were above me. Their voices were quieter, but as I focused on them it, I could hear them louder. "I read something like this."

"Where?"

"Here. In Pandora's journal."

"Scholars say it is a forgery."

"Well, it still mentions something like this. Here." I heard pages turning. "This chapter is her ramblings of an imaginary friend. She needed protection, and so she imagined a being strong enough to help her. That night when she got home from the market, her neighbor's son had welts over his spine. He was very sick. The healers tried what they could with their knowledge but relied on bloodletting and such. But the next day the boy went missing from his bed.

The girl wandered the nearby forest and there she met a beast. He stood almost 8ft tall. It was a furry beast with black, white, and silver fur. His arms ended in long talons. Its face appeared to be a mixture of a wolf and a gorilla. But his warm beautiful blue eyes made the girl gasp. He had the same beautiful blue hue the boy had. When he looked at her, he paused and cocked his head. She ran away. She never saw him again, but she wrote sometimes when she felt unsafe, she would think of him and knew peace."

"What on Earth are you talking about? No way Goddess Pandora would turn her into one of those things. We baptized her to save her from turning into one."

"We can't assume the Goddess' intent. I can't say too much, but I've come from speaking with the Council and The Alphas. Recently, they have been dealing with a small group of vocal wolves who think we are too modern, and we should be connecting more with our inner wolves."

"We always had a vocal minority, but people want to shift more to be closer to their inner beasts."

"I think it may be more than that. Some other things I've heard. There was a break-in at the Academic Guild Hall. They stole things, broke so many artifacts. A wolf died, and others are missing."

"What?" His voice raised.

"Shh. Don't wake her."

"Who died? Who is missing? Do they have an idea who did the break-in or what they took if anything?"

"They didn't tell me. They reached out tome because they knew I had knowledge of this Diary and I had been studying it. They wanted to make sure I still had it. Alpha Chumana asked about the Elpith artifact. I told her I would look. But when I left, Historian Shift came up to me. They asked about the creatures we were dealing with on Earth. When I told them, they went white as a sheet. They left without saying anything else."

"There aren't any creatures like that here." Scott said.

"We just got back. Maybe there was? But I think there is something more to this break in. Can you see what you can find out?"

"Of course. What about Sunny?"

"I'll keep an eye on her."

"You don't really think she's gonna shift into one of those things?"

"Only the Goddess knows her plan. I'm going to try placing a Heque plant on her spine. It may be soothing like it is for us." Dr. Frost said.

"Good idea. I'm going to go speak with the Gammas."

"Ok. Be careful." A presence nearby shifted and paced then stood too close for my comfort. "Don't wake her." Dr. Frost whispered.

"I'm not. Just checking on her before I go."

"She's not your fated."

"I know, but I still it's like I'm supposed to protect her."

"The Goddess blessed Sunny. We would all protect the Goddess as she would us. Maybe a gift included a bit of her because of Sunny's baptism in her lake. Regardless, I got the watch soldier. You go do your duty and I'll protect her."

"I have this sinking feeling something terrible is going to happen soon."

"Enough of that. We need information. Meet me back here before the evening meal."
"Ok." One person walked away.

The other lingered before the person with lighter steps walked towards where I pictured the shelving of herbs were. Clinking and shuffling followed. The person, I presumed Dr. Frost, whispered. "Time for some vitals. After, I'm going to put a herb on your back to hopefully reduce any pain you are in."

Dr. Frost hummed while she worked. Her touch cold on my skin except when she assessed my back. A spike of fire ran down my spine. I dare not to make a noise or change my breath. An act I mastered back in Chicago. No matter how much my body ached, I would not react. These shifters might be stronger than me. More knowledgeable than me, but I could be tough too.

Even when I couldn't handle anymore, I would lay silent waiting for the stabbing to lessen. I wanted to scratch out the tingles, rip out my own spine to stop it from hurting.

I woke from a restless sleep in the dark. Scott nor Dr. Frost were anywhere to be found. The leaves on my spine still hurt, I shook and wiped at it. The air gave some relief. I decided to not be modest. Not seeing anyone here, I left my tunic on the bed.

I climbed up to the loft looking for anyone. The desk I found looked clean and organized. Dr. Frost had some folders in a drawer, one being for Patient 44. Curiosity couldn't stop me. I flipped it open only to see gibberish. I found drawings of my body showing the blue sections and another with my new lumps. Dr. Frost had great handwriting, but I didn't recognize the symbols. The only English, Sunny written at the top.

I folded the folder and put it back. I rifled through the papers not finding anything of interest.

"You shouldn't be out of bed Sunny." A new voice scared the bejeebers out of me.

I didn't shriek. I kept my breath fast but quiet. I looked around not seeing anyone.

"I hear you up in the loft. Dr. Frost likes her privacy. I promise not to tell her, if you promise not to tell her I left you alone."

I snuck over to peer down from the loft. I saw a short tiny woman with interesting amber eyes and long black hair tied back in braids. She waved at me with a wide dimpled smile.

I didn't want to come down, but wished I brought my tunic with me. I crossed my arms over my breasts. The ache in my back felt much lighter. I looked around the room and found a long mirror-like object shaped like a wolf jumping. I turned my back; my back looked bruised. The lumps looked like welts with tufts of silverish hairs poking out.

"Oh." The woman said softly from the stairs. "I don't think Dr. Frost will mind you using her looking glass. I'm Yoki, a healer too. Would you mind if I come closer?"

I nodded at her shyly.

She walked up keeping her hands clasped behind her. "Fascinating. Sorry if I'm being rude. I'm still learning English."

I tried to point at the hairs.

"You didn't have hairs sprouting yesterday. I'm not sure if you woke up, and they told you. They are a silver color which is interesting. For shifting, our fur normally matches our hair. I think we were all expecting you to have darker fur. Also, the fur itself is a clue. Its thick like wolves, but I suppose lots of animals have thick fur. May I touch?"

I nodded.

Just barely her fingers touched a small tuft. My skin rippled.

"Woah."

My eyes were wide matching Yoki's.